Last week 6 members of our Frith Team participated in a litter pick around Bridgnorth High Street and Severn Park for the Bridgnorth Litter Pickers. This volunteering was part of our wider commitment as a company to social value. The litter pick contributed to a cleaner area, a sense of accomplishment across the members of the team, after a positive observable change is seen. It was also great to get out and about as a team!
We found all sorts of interesting things. Across separate places, we found almost a full beauty kit: a bottle of nail varnish, a tube of lip gloss, some eyelash curlers and two (yes two) combs. However, the main items collected were cigarette butts and soft packaging, whether that was sweet wrappers, bits of plastic and cardboard. We also found a number of drinks cups, bottles and cans. We found that litter was mainly left in corners, bushes or around the bins.
Below are some pictures of the waste we came across in the morning of the litter pick.
For the litter pick we collected waste into two bags, one for general rubbish and the other for items for which the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) would be applicable (i.e. single use drinks containers, excluding glass and HDPE milk bottles). Further to that we also took note of how many disposable vapes we collected throughout the morning.
The results of our findings are below:
The number of DRS returnable items collected was c. 35 items, this is assumed to equate to around £7 .
Following our litter pick, we have reported our findings to the Bridgnorth Litter Pickers who have experienced similar, and typically pick up two disposable vapes per person. The vapes are particularly problematic and are a serious cause of fires further down the waste management chain.
Initially, we were all a bit surprised at the amount of cigarette waste, being non-smokers ourselves, but Bridgnorth has a busy high street with lots of pubs. Most of this would be collected by regular street sweeping, along with other small items and detritus. In general, we are pleased to say that Bridgnorth town centre is relatively free of large volumes of rubbish. Most of what we found, particularly the items that would be included in a DRS, was at the edges of car parks and buried in hedges at the park.
The introduction of a DRS in England is partly aimed at reducing the amount of recyclable rubbish on our streets, as well as capturing more recycling overall. While DRS materials yielded only just over 13% of the total waste we collected (by weight), it was around 21% of the litter by volume, and so could have a more significant visual impact. When it comes to the blight of litter, every little helps to keep our streets clean and reduce associated hazards to wildlife and pollution.
Our team will continue to do regular litter picking around town. Next time we’ll move away from the town centre to areas perhaps less regularly cleaned. I wonder what we’ll find next time…!